FTZ red carpet for Chow Tai Fook

Two months after setting up a shopping mall in a free-trade zone in China, a Hong Kong jewellery company has been invited to build similar malls in other free-trade zones.
Chow Tai Fook set up Hoko mall, featuring Hong Kong products, in the Qianhai free-trade zone. This has led to opportunities to expand in several mainland cities, including Shanghai, according to executive director Chan Sai-Cheong, who overlooks the company’s mainland activities.
At the opening ceremony of the Qianhai mall, Adrian Cheng Chi-Kong said that if Shanghai offered an opportunity, he would consider it. The eldest grandson of billionaire Cheng Yu-tung, Adrian Cheng Chi-Kong is executive vice-chairman at New World Development, which is the biggest part of the family’s Chow Tai Fook Holdings empire.
Unlike traditional malls, CTF’s Hoko mall provides two ways for customers to check out – the traditional “grab, pay and go” model and the online channel, through which orders by smartphone app are delivered to their home. Among the 21 tenants of the mall, Chow Tai Fook is joined by Hong Kong retailers including G2000, ISA Boutique and Sasa.
Retail prices of the online channel are typically cheaper than the traditional channel, as the Chinese government applies a special “postal tax” only for imported goods bought from cross-border eCommerce stores.
Meanwhile, Chan says CTF will take its time before opening a second mall. He says the business performance of the Hoko mall’s second phase, set to launch before May, will be a testing ground. “We won’t rush,” he says, noting that the company does not as yet have a timetable for expansion.
In the same area in Qianhai, the second-phase Hoko will be double the size of the original, covering 12,000 sqm. Chan says the tenants will be more diversified, with such inclusions as restaurants, supermarkets, and auto parts, electronics and furniture stores.
Only half of the space will be used for retail, however, the balance being reserved for projects to enhance the customer experience.
A bauhinia (Hong Kong orchard tree) garden will be added outside the mall, with a display of artworks – an idea initiated by Adrian Cheng Chi-Kong, who made artwork integral to Hong Kong’s K11 mall.

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